1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an automatic food dispenser, specifically a new arrangement for dispensing portions of hot food without manual intervention. One specific application of the invention is for dispensing cooked potatoes in the form of french fries.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The automatic dispensing of hot dishes in public places raises numerous problems, especially in the case of foods which conventionally must be fried in oil, like french fries, for example. One of the problems to be solved is that of maintaining the cooking oil, controlling the cooking process and controlling the proportion of cooking oil in the foods dispensed. At present it is not feasible to envisage the entirely automatic dispensing of hot foods of this kind. It is also difficult to guarantee a constant quality of the dispensed food, even if cooking and dispensing are monitored by a staff member. On the other hand, it is a simple matter to conceive of large-scale production units in which product quality and cooking conditions are closely monitored by specialist staff to offer products of consistent quality prepared in a way that preserves their taste and like properties as much as possible. In the specific case of french fries it is possible to control closely the quality of cooking and the amount of fat tolerated in the cooked fries. It is known how to package precooked products of this kind using means such that the taste and other qualities can be preserved over a relatively long period.
The invention provides a new arrangement for the automatic dispensing of precooked products of this kind to be served hot without manual intervention.